The book has been updated to include many of the topics we’ve been discussing here on the blog over the last couple of months: the larger standard deduction, the new version of the home mortgage interest deduction, the new version of the deduction for state/local taxes, the new version of the child tax credit, and so on.

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

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“The stock market’s tumble over the last week combined with the fact that stock valuations are still so high makes me wonder about the appropriate way to respond. Time to take some money off the table? I suspect I know what you’ll say, but I’m interested to hear anyway.”

The total U.S. stock market (as measured by the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, VTSMX) fell by less than 10% last week. If that made you super nervous, that’s a good indication that your stock allocation is too high. A 10% decline should not be a big deal — especially when it comes after a 9-year bull market during which the value of U.S. stocks rose by roughly 400%.

If a decline of less than 10% makes you nervous at all, imagine how you’ll feel about a 30%, 40%, or 50% decline. The goal of asset allocation is to craft a portfolio with which you’d be able “sit tight” (or possibly even rebalance into stocks) during a full-blown bear market.

Making Use of Market Valuations

It’s true that the stock market is still highly valued relative to historical norms. (This should not be a surprise, given the huge returns over the last 9 years.)

But how useful is that information for the purpose of predicting returns going forward?

The following chart shows the correlation between the S&P 500’s valuation (as measured by PE10) and its inflation-adjusted returns for periods of various lengths from 1926-2017. As you would expect, the correlation is always negative, which means that the higher the market’s valuation at any time, the lower we should expect returns to be going forward.

But the correlation between PE10 and ensuing short-term returns has been pretty weak. For instance, the correlation coefficient between PE10 and 1-year returns is just -0.22. The correlation is quite a bit stronger if we look at 10-year real returns (-0.63 correlation) or 20-year real returns (-0.75 correlation).

In other words, valuation levels are not very good at predicting short-term market returns. They are much better at predicting longer-term returns.

But even if we have good reason to suspect poor returns over the next, say, 10 years, a 10-year period of poor returns could come in a lot of forms. The market could be roughly stagnant, with inflation taking a toll. Alternatively, we might see another 7 years of gangbuster returns, followed by a super bad bear market for 3 years. Or we might see a 2-year bear market, followed by 4 years of good returns, then another 4-year bear market. And so on. (Or, the next 10 years could be a period for which valuation isn’t even predictive in the first place! A negative 63% correlation is still far from perfect.)

Point being, we never know what’s about to happen in the near term. So valuations aren’t very useful for trying to “dodge” a bear market, so to speak.

But because they do have decent predictive power over the long-term, valuations are useful for questions such as, “how much should I be saving per year?” And, “how much can I afford to spend per year in retirement?”

And with today’s high valuations, we should expect pretty modest returns — suggesting that high savings rates (for those in their accumulation years) and low spending rates (for those in their retirement years) are probably prudent. This was true a year ago, and it’s still true today.

What is the Best Age to Claim Social Security?

Read the answers to this question and several other Social Security questions in my latest book:

Social Security Made Simple: Social Security Retirement Benefits and Related Planning Topics Explained in 100 Pages or Less

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

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]]>Investing Blog Roundup: “Floor and Upside” Retirement Planninghttps://obliviousinvestor.com/investing-blog-roundup-floor-and-upside-retirement-planning/
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 13:00:42 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7908There are two broad schools of thought when it comes to funding retirement: one that plans to use volatile assets to fund the bulk of necessary spending (and which therefore focuses on “safe” withdrawal rates) and another that prioritizes locking in a safe “floor” of income before allocating retirement funds to volatile asset classes.

Dirk Cotton recently provided a clear walk-through of the “floor and upside” strategy that may be of interest to retirees and near-retirees.

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

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]]>What *Didn’t* Change as a Result of the New Tax Law?https://obliviousinvestor.com/what-didnt-change-as-a-result-of-the-new-tax-law/
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 13:00:05 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7905Quick book-related update: The 2018 edition of Social Security Made Simple is now available (print version here, Kindle version here). The changes are minor, so I’m using the same ISBN as the 2017 edition, which means that the Amazon page will still show the 2017 publication date.

And the writing is finished for the 2018 edition of Taxes Made Simple. My estimate is that the book will be available in roughly 2-3 weeks.

The single topic that readers have asked about most often over the last month or so has been the new deduction for pass-through business income. To my surprise though, there has been another type of email that has been even more common: questions about various things that haven’t changed at all. That is, people want confirmation that certain things weren’t changed by the broad new tax law.

“Is Social Security taxation changing?” (Nope.)

“Has the premium tax credit changed?” (Nope.)

And so on.

So, with that in mind, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that are essentially unchanged as a result of the new law. (I say “essentially” unchanged, because many of these these deductions/credits/etc. involve dollar amounts that are inflation-adjusted each year. And, going forward, they will be adjusted based on chained CPI-U rather than CPI-U.)

The calculation that determines how much of your Social Security benefits are taxable

Retirement accounts (aside from the new inability to recharacterize — undo — a Roth conversion)

Cost basis tracking/reporting (i.e., the proposed change that would have forced people to use the FIFO method for identifying shares did not occur)

The step-up in cost basis that occurs when property is inherited

The 3.8% net investment income tax

The 0.9% additional Medicare tax for high earners

Medicare and Social Security taxes in general (including self-employment tax)

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

Deduction for self-employed health insurance

Deduction for student loan interest

Itemized deduction for charitable contributions

American Opportunity Credit

Lifetime Learning Credit

Child and dependent care credit (not to be confused with the child tax credit, which has changed, and which in some cases can now be claimed for dependents other than your children)

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

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]]>Investing Blog Roundup: Just Now Getting Back Into the Market?https://obliviousinvestor.com/investing-blog-roundup-just-now-getting-back-into-the-market/
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 13:00:31 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7898“What should I do now, if I bailed out of the market in 2008?”

I hadn’t heard that question from anybody in a while, though I heard it all the time from readers from probably 2011 to 2015 or so. Jim Dahle recently gave a great answer for anybody who took their money out of stocks in 2008 and still hasn’t reinvested.

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of this email (or by removing this RSS feed from your feed reader if you have subscribed via a feed reader).

Sole Proprietorship/Partnership Taxation

Sole proprietorship income (as well as partnership income if the partner is active in the business) is subject to self-employment tax (i.e., a tax of roughly 15%, to replace the Social Security and Medicare taxes that would be paid by the employee and employer if this were wage income instead).

What’s new is that those individual income tax rates are now, in most cases, lower for a given level of income than they would have been prior to the new law.

C-Corporation Taxation

C-corporations are taxed at their own rate (now a flat rate of 21%, whereas before they had progressive tax brackets like individuals). Then, when they distribute income to shareholders in the form of a dividend, the dividend is taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20% tax rates depending on the taxpayer’s level of taxable income. The dividend may also be subject to the 3.8% tax on net investment income.

Previously, C-corporation tax treatment was not usually advantageous because of this double taxation (i.e., taxation of income at the corporate level, plus taxation of the dividend paid to the shareholders). While the new flat 21% tax rate means that C-corporation income over $50,000 will now be taxed at a lower rate than previously, the overall concept of double taxation still applies. And the net result is that C-corporation tax treatment will still be undesirable for most small business owners.

S-Corporation Taxation

Qualifies for the new deduction for pass-through business income (subject to phaseouts), and

Is not subject to self-employment tax.

In other words, it’s the same as income from a sole proprietorship or partnership, but without self-employment tax.

However, S-corporations are required to pay their owner-employees a “reasonable” level of compensation (i.e., wages/salary) before there can be any profits. And such wages:

Are taxed at normal income tax rates,

Are subject to regular payroll taxes (i.e., Social Security and Medicare taxes that are essentially the same thing as paying self-employment tax), and

Do not qualify as pass-through income for the new deduction.

In other words, the wages themselves are not very tax-efficient. So the savings from S-corporation taxation only kick in once there is enough income from the business to pay a reasonable level of compensation to owner-employees and still have a sizable profit left over.

So, in short, for people whose income level is such that they would be in or below the 24% tax bracket (and therefore unaffected by the phaseouts for the new deduction for pass-through income) sole proprietorship/partnership taxation is now somewhat more appealing relative to S-corporation taxation, because all of the sole proprietorship/partnership income would qualify for the deduction, whereas the wages that the S-corporation would have to pay to the owner-employee(s) would not qualify for the deduction.

Of note, however, is that the opposite conclusion may apply for people in the phaseout range (as well as for non-service business owners who are past the phaseout range). That is, S-corporation taxation may be relatively more advantageous, because it would be advantageous to have the business pay wages to somebody (i.e., the owner-employee), to minimize the impact of the wage-related limit for the deduction.

More than ever, discussing the matter with a qualified tax professional is likely to be advantageous.

What is the Best Age to Claim Social Security?

Read the answers to this question and several other Social Security questions in my latest book:

Social Security Made Simple: Social Security Retirement Benefits and Related Planning Topics Explained in 100 Pages or Less

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of this email (or by removing this RSS feed from your feed reader if you have subscribed via a feed reader).

]]>Investing Blog Roundup: Investing Made Simple, 2018 Editionhttps://obliviousinvestor.com/investing-blog-roundup-investing-made-simple-2018-edition/
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:00:06 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7893Administrative note: There will be no articles next week, to give me more time to work on updating my various books to reflect the recent tax changes. (Publishing every other week may turn out to be the ongoing schedule for a few months.)

On a related point, the 2018 edition of Investing Made Simple is now available (print version here, Kindle version here). For anybody who hasn’t read the book, it’s exactly what it sounds like: an easy-to-understand, concise introduction to the topic of investing.

As far as the other books, the 2018 edition of Social Security Made Simple is coming along, and I’m in the very early stages of updating Can I Retire and Taxes Made Simple. I have not yet begun work on the two largest projects (i.e., updating the two books about small business taxes).

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of this email (or by removing this RSS feed from your feed reader if you have subscribed via a feed reader).

]]>How to Calculate the Deduction for Pass-Through Business Incomehttps://obliviousinvestor.com/pass-through-income-deduction/
Mon, 01 Jan 2018 13:00:19 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7889With regard to the new tax law, by far the most common topic of questions from readers has been the new deduction for pass-through business income (i.e., income from sole proprietorships, partnerships, S-corporations, or LLCs taxed as any of the above).

What follows is my best attempt to explain the new deduction clearly. Unfortunately, it is complicated. So if this deduction will be relevant to your personal tax planning, I’d encourage you to meet with a tax professional, read the applicable part of the new law for yourself, and/or read articles on the topic by other sources (e.g., Steve Nelson, Michael Kitces, Kelly Phillips Erb).

One point before we get started: I’m simplifying here by assuming that you have no qualified cooperative dividends, qualified REIT dividends, or qualified publicly traded partnership income. Each of those types of income gets special treatment under this new Code section.

Basic Calculation

If your taxable income* is under a certain threshold amount, the deduction is 20% of the pass-through income from your business(es), but it cannot be greater than 20% of your taxable income excluding net capital gains.

The threshold amounts are $315,000 if you are married filling jointly or $157,500 if you are single, head of household, or married filing separately. (Of note, this is the top of the 24% tax bracket for each filing status.)

When your taxable income exceeds the threshold, two potential complications kick in:

A wage (or wage + property) limit, and/or

A phaseout for “specified service businesses.”

Wage (or Wage + Property) Limit

If your taxable income exceeds a certain phaseout range (i.e., the threshold amount from above, plus $100,000 if married filling jointly or $50,000 if single/head of household/married filing separately), then your deduction for each business will also be limited to the greater of:

50% of the W-2 wages paid by the business**, or

25% of the W-2 wages paid by the business**, plus 2.5 percent of the unadjusted basis immediately after acquisition of all “qualified property” (basically, depreciable tangible property that is used by the business or held by the business and available for use).

If your taxable income is in the phaseout range, the calculation basically says, “If you were past the phaseout range, how much would the wage (or wage + property) limit reduce the amount of your deduction? Now, instead of reducing your deduction by that whole amount, we’ll multiply that reduction by a percentage that is the percentage of the way you are through the phaseout range.”

Example: You are single and you have $150,000 of pass-through income from a sole proprietorship. Your taxable income is $182,500 (i.e., halfway through the phaseout range). The business has no qualified property. The business has two part-time employees to whom it paid a total of $40,000 of W-2 wages over the course of the year.

Without regard to the limitations, your pass-through business income deduction would be $30,000 (i.e., 20% of $150,000). But your taxable income is past the threshold amount of $157,500. If you were past the phaseout range, your deduction would be limited to $20,000 (i.e., 50% of the wages paid by the business). That’s a $10,000 reduction relative to what it would be without the limitation.

But you aren’t past the phaseout range. You are halfway through it. So your deduction ($30,000) is reduced by half of that $10,000 — for a total deduction of $25,000.

Specified Service Business Phaseout

If your business is a “specified service business,” there’s another limitation that can come into play. A specified service business is:

Any trade or business involving the performance of services in the fields of health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, or any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of one or more of its owners or employees; or

Any trade or business which involves the performance of investing and investment management, trading, or dealing in securities, partnership interests, or commodities.

If your business is a specified service business, then we again calculate how far your taxable income is through the same phaseout range (i.e., the same threshold, plus either $100,000 or $50,000).

If you are past the phaseout range, you get no deduction for pass-through business income.

If you are in the phaseout range, then we calculate the deduction as normal, except we only consider a pro-rata share of all of the amounts from the business (income, gain, deduction, loss, W-2 wages from the business). So, for example, if your income is 70% of the way through the phaseout range, everything is 70% phased out, so only 30% of your income from the business would be counted for calculating the deduction.

A key point here is that this affects the amount of wages counted for applying the wage and wage+property limits! And this is where the complexity starts to get ugly.

Example: You are single and you have $150,000 of pass-through income from a sole proprietorship. Your taxable income is $170,000 (i.e., 25% of the way through the phaseout range). The business has no qualified property. The business has two part-time employees to whom it paid a total of $40,000 of W-2 wages over the course of the year. The business is a specified service business.

Because you are 25% of the way through the phaseout range, all of the amounts from the business are 25% phased out, meaning we use 75% of each of them. So instead of calculating 20% of the income from the business, we calculate 20% of 75% of the income from the business (i.e., 20% of 75% of $150,000). That gives us a deduction of $22,500 before applying the wage-related limit.

As in the prior example, to apply the wage-related limit, we calculate what the reduction to the deduction would be if you were all the way through the phaseout range, then we apply only a portion of that reduction, based on how far you are through the phaseout range.

Again, the wage limit is 50% of the wages from the business, but because of the specified service business phaseout we are now calculating 50% of 75% of the wages from the business (i.e., 50% of 75% of $40,000). That gives us a limit of $15,000. That’s what the limitation would be if you were past the phaseout range. Relative to the $22,500 deduction you’d have without the wage limit, that’s a $7,500 reduction.

But you aren’t past the phaseout range. You’re 25% of the way through it. So we calculate 25% of the $7,500 reduction, which gives us a reduction of $1,875. So we take your initial $22,500 deduction and reduce it by $1,875 for a total allowed deduction of $20,625.

Other Assorted Points of Note

The deduction for pass-through business income is not an “above the line” deduction (i.e., it does not reduce AGI). But it is also not an itemized deduction; that is, you can claim it as well as the standard deduction. In other words, it works much like personal exemptions did prior to 2018.

For business owners below the phaseout range, this new deduction is usually going to be a point in favor of keeping sole proprietor taxation (or partnership taxation) rather than electing S-corp taxation, as the wages that the S-corp would have to pay to owner-employees would not be pass-through business income.

Business owners below the phaseout range will have two different marginal tax rates for different types of income. (Normal taxable income will have a normal marginal tax rate, and pass-through business income will have a lower marginal tax rate because it results in a larger deduction.)

For business owners in the phaseout range, those two marginal tax rates will be higher, because each additional dollar of income (whether from the business or not) will cause partial phaseout of the deduction.

*For brevity’s sake, I’m referring to “taxable income” throughout this article. In reality, we are concerned with taxable income without regard to the deduction for pass-through business income.

**For multiple-owner pass-through businesses (i.e., partnerships, S-corps, or LLCs taxed as either of the two), “W-2 wages” only includes that one owner’s allocated share of total wages paid. For example, if the business paid $60,000 of wages and there are two partners each with 50% ownership, $30,000 would be the amount of wages each partner would use when calculating the deduction.

What is the Best Age to Claim Social Security?

Read the answers to this question and several other Social Security questions in my latest book:

Social Security Made Simple: Social Security Retirement Benefits and Related Planning Topics Explained in 100 Pages or Less

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of this email (or by removing this RSS feed from your feed reader if you have subscribed via a feed reader).

]]>Investing Blog Roundup: Happy Holidayshttps://obliviousinvestor.com/investing-blog-roundup-happy-holidays/
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 13:00:35 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7887Administrative note: There will be no articles this upcoming week. The normal publishing schedule will resume on January 1. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of you!

Both the House and Senate have now passed identical bills regarding the new tax law. Relative to the version that came out last Friday night (which we discussed on Monday), the only difference that could affect personal financial planning is that the expanded definition of qualified distributions from 529 accounts will not include homeschooling expenses.

Disclaimer:Your subscription to this blog does not create a CPA-client or other professional services relationship between you and Mike Piper or between you and Simple Subjects, LLC. By subscribing, you explicitly agree not to hold Mike Piper or Simple Subjects, LLC liable in any way for damages arising from decisions you make based on the information available herein. Neither Mike Piper nor Simple Subjects, LLC makes any warranty as to the accuracy of any information contained in this communication. I am not a financial or investment advisor, and the information contained herein is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. On financial matters for which assistance is needed, I strongly urge you to meet with a professional advisor who (unlike me) has a professional relationship with you and who (again, unlike me) knows the relevant details of your situation.

You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of this email (or by removing this RSS feed from your feed reader if you have subscribed via a feed reader).

]]>2018 Tax Brackets, Standard Deduction, and Other Changeshttps://obliviousinvestor.com/2018-tax-brackets/
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 13:00:10 +0000https://obliviousinvestor.com/?p=7883We now have the final text of the new tax law. Please note, however, that the Act is long (just over 500 pages) and complicated. Point being: there are many changes that I have not included in this article. My goal here is just to mention some of the changes that are most likely to affect a large number of readers. In addition, it’s possible I have made mistakes, though I have done my best to read carefully.

Also, many of the changes below have built-in expiration dates (e.g., the new tax bracket system is supposed to last through 2025). However, I have omitted such expiration dates below because they’re several years in the future, and it’s anybody’s guess whether such expiration will actually be allowed to occur. That is, Congress may decide to temporarily renew the changes at some point, may make them permanent, or may repeal them prior to their expiration dates.

Single 2018 Tax Brackets

Taxable Income

Tax Bracket:

$0-$9,525

10%

$9,526-$38,700

12%

$38,701-$82,500

22%

$82,501-$157,500

24%

$157,501-$200,000

32%

$200,001-$500,000

35%

$500,001+

37%

Married Filing Jointly 2018 Tax Brackets

Taxable Income

Tax Bracket:

$0-$19,050

10%

$19,051-$77,400

12%

$77,401-$165,000

22%

$165,001-$315,000

24%

$315,001-$400,000

32%

$400,001-$600,000

35%

$600,001+

37%

Head of Household 2018 Tax Brackets

Taxable Income

Tax Bracket:

$0-$13,600

10%

$13,601-$51,800

12%

$51,801-$82,500

22%

$82,501-$157,500

24%

$157,501-$200,000

32%

$200,001-$500,000

35%

$500,001+

37%

Married Filing Separately 2018 Tax Brackets

Taxable Income

Marginal Tax Rate:

$0-$9,525

10%

$9,526-$38,700

12%

$38,701-$82,500

22%

$82,501-$157,500

24%

$157,501-$200,000

32%

$200,001-$300,000

35%

$300,001+

37%

Standard Deduction Amounts

The 2018 standard deduction amounts will be as follows:

Single or married filing separately: $12,000

Married filing jointly: $24,000

Head of household: $18,000

The additional standard deduction for people who have reached age 65 (or who are blind) is $1,300 for each married taxpayer or $1,600 for unmarried taxpayers.

Personal exemptions and dependent exemptions will no longer exist.

Child Tax Credit

The child tax credit is increased from $1,000 per child to $2,000 per child, with the phaseout range not beginning until $200,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($400,000 if married filing jointly). Up to $1,400 of the credit (per child) will be refundable.

Changes to Itemized Deductions

Firstly, with regard to mortgages and home equity loans, only interest related to “acquisition indebtedness” will be deductible. This includes debt related to “acquiring, constructing, or substantially improving” your qualified residence. In other words, the interest on many home equity loans will no longer be deductible.

In addition, for “acquisition indebtedness” taken out 12/16/2017 or later, only interest on the first $750,000 of the balance ($375,000 if married filing separately) will be deductible. For loans taken out on or before 12/15/2017, the old $1,000,000 limit ($500,000 if married filing separately) will apply.

The deduction for state/local/foreign property taxes and income taxes remains in place, as well as the option to deduct state and local sales taxes instead of state and local income taxes in any year. The total deduction, however, will be limited to $10,000 per year ($5,000 if married filing separately).

The deduction for medical expenses will still exist. And for 2017 and 2018, the threshold for deductibility will be 7.5% of adjusted gross income rather than 10%.

Personal casualty losses (e.g., losses due to fire, storm, theft) will no longer be deductible unless they are attributed to a federally declared disaster.

Capital Gains and Qualified Dividends

Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends will still have 0%, 15%, and 20% tax rates. The income thresholds separating those different tax rates, however, have changed. For 2018, long-term capital gains and qualified dividends will face the following tax rates:

0% tax rate if they fall below $77,200 of taxable income if married filing jointly, $51,700 if head of household, or $38,600 if filing as single or married filing separately.

15% tax rate if they fall above the 0% threshold but below $479,000 if married filing jointly, $452,400 if head of household, $425,800 if single, or $239,500 if married filing separately.

20% tax rate if they fall above the 15% threshold.

Note that threshold for the top of the 0% tax rate is close to but not the same as the top of the 12% tax bracket.

Chained CPI

Many amounts that were previously inflation-indexed to CPI-U will now be indexed to chained CPI-U going forward. (I’m not aware of anything that will remain indexed to CPI-U, but I have not done an exhaustive search to check.)

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

The AMT exemption amount will be increased to:

$70,300 for single people and people filing as head of household,

$109,400 for married people filing jointly, and

$54,700 for married people filing separately.

Estate Tax

The estate tax exclusion is being increased to $11.2 million per decedent.

Expanded 529 Applicability

With regard to 529 accounts, qualified distributions have been expanded to include distributions for elementary/secondary public, private, or religious school.

Individual Mandate (2019)

Beginning in 2019, the individual mandate (i.e., the penalty for not having health insurance) will disappear.

Alimony Payments (2019)

For divorces that become finalized in 2019 or later, alimony payments will no longer be deductible to the payor, nor includable as income to the payee.

Pass-Through Business Income

For taxpayers with “pass-through business income” (i.e., income from a sole proprietorship, partnership, or S-corporation), there will be a deduction equal to 20% of such pass-through income. However, if your taxable income (without regard to this deduction) exceeds $157,500 ($315,000 if married filing jointly), several complicating factors can apply.

For instance, if your taxable income is above the threshold amount and your business is a “specified service trade or business” (i.e., your business provides services in the fields of health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, or the principal asset of your business is the reputation or skill of 1 or more of its employees), your deduction will be reduced.

Or, if your taxable income is above the threshold amount, your deduction for pass-through income from the business may be limited based on your wages from the business (potentially being limited to 50% of such wages, if your taxable income is high enough).

What is the Best Age to Claim Social Security?

Read the answers to this question and several other Social Security questions in my latest book:

Social Security Made Simple: Social Security Retirement Benefits and Related Planning Topics Explained in 100 Pages or Less

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